I change the oil on my Prius myself. I took my other car in for an oil change today, and they tried to sell me an engine flush. The product is Mighty Engine Flush. What do they put in this stuff? Is there anything good about it?
Don't. Just do a drain and refill of both coolant loops at 100k miles as per your owner's manual. You should refill with Toyota Super Long Life coolant. JeffD
Not a good idea from what I have read. If your car has a lot of miles it may have some sludge and other crud setting safely in the bottom of the oil pan. The "Mighty Engine Flush" might distribute it to the rest of the engine and clog some things up. If the car is running OK I would just change oil and filter. Best not to use oil additives either.
Yea, it's a waste of money. I've heard the same thing about using synthetic oil in high mileage engines that have only had dino oil in them; the acid in the synthetic oil can loosen up sludge and cause big problems.
Just run a high quality motor oil and a flush isnt needed. They normally have enough detergents that crud wont build up. If you run Dinosour oil change it every 5k. And full synthetic every 10k. I run mobil1 0w20 and keep an eye on the level each fillup. Drained after 10k the mob1 is still very clean.
I have always remembered one response to the flush offerings by dealers and repair shops that always summed it up for me: "The only thing a flush is good for is to flush cash out of your wallet and in to the dealer's profits."
I bought a Honda Accord in 1996. After 5 years or so they recommended an engine (oil) flush. It may have been kerosene, cheap oil, or something, but they put it in, ran it for a while at no load, and drained it out. It did come out kind-of black. So when about 10 years rolled around, I asked about doing it again. Their response was that Honda no longer recommended doing this, and they did not want to do it. I do not know the reason. If it were just ineffective, they could continue to dry-clean my wallet. So perhaps there was genuine harm in the process.
I think your right it must be like kerosene or diesel fuel. I believe when you drain it you don't get it all out, some stays in the engine and mixes with the new oil, that can't be good.
Yes, part of the solvents they use in engine flushes can remain behind, damaging your oil and reducing its ability to protect your engine from wear. Don't use them.
This is a little off topic but this question reminds me of a 1996 Ford Contour that I had that had an issue with stalling out after gettting up to temperature, stopping for about 30 minutes and then restarting. After several trips to the Ford dealer and a lot of bitching on my part, they finally assigned their Master Technician to take a look. His expert opinion was that my manifold was clogged up with carbon buildup and needed to be removed and thorougly cleaned and I needed a fuel system flush. Cost was going to be several hundred dollars. Of course I was just beyond warranty even though I had been taking the car back to them several times and they could never "duplicate the problem". Sound familiar. I took the car to a mechanic that specialized in engines and tune ups. He ran a boroscope through the manifold and showed me a perfectly clean manifold. He said that with high voltage ignitions systems and fuel injection that if you had carbon buildup that you should have issues with rough running, etc., which I did not have. He asked if the Ford dealership had mentioned anything about the fuel system and I told him no. After doing further testing he recommended that I change out the fuel pump. Luckily on this car you could remove the rear seat and get to the fuel pump. I changed out the fuel pump and my son and I drove that car for many years without ever another problem This is one of the main reasons I went from buy American to now owning a Honda and a Toyota. I have also never had another "system flush" on another vehicle and have never had any issues after driving cars close to 200,000 miles. Sunday morning at work with weekend duty with plenty of time on my hands
